A lecture and concerts highlight Fanfare’s opening acts

A symphony concert, lecture, and chamber concert are the events scheduled during the opening week of the 41st season of Fanfare, Southeastern Louisiana University’s annual fall festival of the arts, humanities and social sciences.

On Sept. 24 the Southeastern Wind Symphony will present “American Salute.” Scheduled at 7:30 p.m. in Southeastern’s Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts, the concert will celebrate America’s 250th birthday.

A Then and Now Fanfare lecture from the History and Political Science Department is scheduled Oct. 1, at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre. Associate Professor of History and Political Science Mark Dries will present “Amalgamated Selves: Identity and Resilience in Colonial Peruvian Science.”

“For nearly 300 years, the mineral wealth that underwrote the Spanish Empire in the Andes depended on mercury from Huancavelica, Peru,” Dries said. “To secure this, the Crown established a labor draft to force Indigenous Andeans to work in toxic conditions extracting and refining mercury. Andean communities adapted, framing first their service and later their identities according to Spanish legal culture to mitigate the dangers of Peru’s most deadly mine.”

Next up is a concert by the Southeastern Chamber Orchestra on Saturday, Oct. 3. Scheduled in Pottle Auditorium, the concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, contact the Columbia/Fanfare office at 985-549-2999.